Get ready for an afternoon of fantasy and adventure when J.A. White and Paul Durham come to Wellesley Books on Wednesday, May 21st at 4:00pm.

These two debut middle-grade authors will talk about writing and share their new stories: the witchcraft and forbidden forest of White’s The Thickety and the secrets, magic, and monsters of Durham’s The Luck Uglies.

Paul Durham was raised in Massachusetts and at-tended college and law school in Boston. He now lives in New Hampshire with his wife, two daughters, and an enormous bushy creature the local animal shelter identified as a cat. He writes in an abandoned chicken coop at the edge of a swamp and keeps a tiny porcelain frog in his pocket for good luck.

Strange things are happening in Village Drowning, and a terrifying encounter has eleven-year-old Rye O’Chanter convinced that the monstrous, supposedly extinct Bog Noblins have returned. Now Rye’s only hope is an exiled secret society so notorious its name can’t be spoken aloud: the Luck Uglies. As Rye dives into Village Drowning’s maze of secrets, rules, and lies, she’ll discover the truth behind the village’s legends of outlaws and beasts . . . and that it may take a villain to save them from the monsters. .

J. A. White lives in New Jersey with his wife, three sons, and a hamster named Ophelia that doesn’t like him very much. When he’s not making up stories, he teaches a bunch of kids how to make up stories (along with math and science and other important stuff).  He wishes dragons were real because it would be a much cooler way to get to work.

When Kara Westfall was six years old, her mother was convicted of the worst of all crimes: witchcraft.  Years later, Kara and her little brother Taff are still shunned by the people of their village, who believe that nothing is more evil than magic…except, perhaps, the mysterious forest that covers nearly the entire island.  It has many names, this place.  Sometimes it is called the Dark Wood, or Sordyr’s Realm. But mostly it’s called the Thickety.

The villagers live in fear of the Thickety and the terrible creatures that live there.  But when an unusual bird lures Kara into the forbidden forest, she discovers a strange book with unspeakable powers.  A book that might have belonged to her mother.

And that is just the beginning of the story.

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